Monday, September 1, 2014

This spoke to me this morning...


 Please Call Me By My True Names

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow--even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch,

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, 

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.


I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.


I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,my legs as thin a bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am the pirate,my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.


My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,so I can wake up

and the door of my heart could be left open,the door of compassion.